The Leadership Japan Series Podcast Por Dale Carnegie Japan arte de portada

The Leadership Japan Series

The Leadership Japan Series

De: Dale Carnegie Japan
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Leading in Japan is distinct and different from other countries. The language, culture and size of the economy make sure of that. We can learn by trial and error or we can draw on real world practical experience and save ourselves a lot of friction, wear and tear. This podcasts offers hundreds of episodes packed with value, insights and perspectives on leading here. The only other podcast on Japan which can match the depth and breadth of this Leadership Japan Series podcast is the Japan's Top Business interviews podcast.© 2022 Dale Carnegie Training. All Rights Reserved. Economía Gestión Gestión y Liderazgo
Episodios
  • The Planning Process

    The Planning Process
    Jan 21 2026
    Planning is what stops "good intentions" turning into chaos. When teams skip planning, they don't just risk missing the deadline — they risk building the wrong thing, burning budget, and exhausting people on rework. A repeatable planning process keeps everyone aligned on outcomes, realities, actions, timelines, resources, and risks, so execution becomes calmer and faster. What is the planning process and why does it matter? The planning process is a repeatable way to define the outcome, map reality, set goals, design action steps, set timelines, allocate resources, plan contingencies, and track progress. It matters because most teams jump straight into the nitty gritty — meetings, tasks, and urgent emails — and mistake motion for progress. Post-pandemic (2020–2026), that "rush to action" has intensified as organisations face tighter budgets, hybrid teams, and faster competitive cycles. In multinationals (think Toyota-scale) you'll see more structure — governance, stage gates, and risk reviews — while SMEs and startups often rely on speed and intuition. Both can win, but both fail when they don't define "finished" early. In Japan, planning can be stronger in discipline but weaker in challenge if people copy seniors; in the US, planning can be faster but thinner if teams overvalue action. Do now: Write one sentence: "We will deliver ___ by ___ so that ___ improves." What is the first step in planning a project? The first step is defining the desired outcome so everyone shares the same destination. If the outcome is vague ("improve customer service"), the plan becomes a debate and execution becomes random. Better outcomes are specific, measurable, and tied to customer impact: reduce onboarding from 14 days to 3, cut defects by 20%, lift renewal rates by 5% by Q3. This is where leaders must "sell" the outcome, not just announce it. People aren't robots; they need to see why it matters, how it connects to strategy, and what trade-offs it requires. Use familiar frameworks to sharpen the outcome: SMART goals, OKRs (Objective + Key Results), or a simple "metric + deadline + owner." Consumer businesses may prioritise speed and experience; B2B firms may prioritise reliability and risk. Do now: Define 3 success measures (metric, deadline, owner) for your outcome. How do you assess the current situation before making a plan? You assess the current situation by establishing a clear baseline with facts, not opinions. You can't plan the route if you don't agree on the starting point. Capture the "as-is" reality: cycle time, backlog size, defect rate, conversion rate, churn, staffing capacity, supplier constraints, approval bottlenecks — whatever defines today's performance. Big firms may pull dashboards and market intelligence; smaller firms may rely on interviews and spreadsheets. Either works if it's accurate. This step prevents the classic argument later: "Did we actually improve?" It also exposes hidden constraints early (for example, a dependency on one overworked specialist, or a vendor lead time that makes your timeline impossible). Across cultures, the trap is the same: assumptions feel efficient until they prove expensive. Do now: List 10 baseline facts and agree: "This is our starting line." How should leaders set goals that actually get achieved? Leaders set achievable goals by breaking big targets into a hierarchy and translating them into weekly and daily units. A goal that can't be converted into actions is just a wish. Start with the outcome, then cascade: quarterly goals → monthly milestones → weekly targets → daily actions. Be realistic about constraints. Startups may set aggressive targets and iterate fast; regulated industries or complex global teams may need more conservative targets because governance, procurement, and compliance add time. In Japan, goal-setting can suffer if people avoid challenging targets to preserve harmony; in the US, it can suffer if targets are ambitious but under-resourced. Either way, align goals with capability, prioritise ruthlessly, and make ownership explicit. Do now: Build a "goal ladder" and assign one accountable owner per milestone. What makes action steps and time frames workable in the real world? Workable action steps name the work, the owner, the sequence, the dependencies, and the barriers — then lock them to real deadlines. This is where plans often collapse: the intent is clear, but the execution design is missing. Strong planning includes task allocation, coordination across teams, sequencing (what must happen first), supervision cadence, and known blockers. Then you set time frames that people respect by tying dates to deliverables, not vibes. Tools like a simple milestone calendar, a Gantt chart for complex work, or Agile sprints/Kanban for flow-based work can help — but the tool won't save you if "done" isn't defined. Deadlines should be explicit, shared, and reviewed, especially in hybrid teams spread across time zones. Do...
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    13 m
  • The Innovation Process for Leaders

    The Innovation Process for Leaders
    Jan 14 2026
    Doing more, faster, better with less has become the permanent setting in modern business. Post-pandemic, with tighter budgets, higher customer expectations, and AI speeding up competitors, leaders can't rely on "the boss with the whiteboard marker" to magically produce genius ideas on demand. You need a repeatable innovation system that draws out creativity from the whole organisation—especially the people closest to customers. Below is a practical nine-step innovation process leaders can run again and again, so innovation becomes a habit—not a lucky accident. How do leaders define "success" before trying to innovate? Innovation gets messy fast unless everyone is crystal clear on what "good" looks like. Step One is Visualisation: define the goal, the "should be" case, and what success looks like in concrete terms—customer outcomes, cost, quality, time, risk, or growth. In practice, this is where executives at firms like Toyota or Unilever would translate strategy into a shared target: "Reduce onboarding time from 14 days to 3," or "Increase repeat purchase by 10% in APAC by Q4." Compare that with many SMEs where the goal is vague ("be more innovative") and the team sprints hard in random directions. Do now (mini-summary): Write a one-sentence "should be" target and 3 measurable success indicators (KPI, timeline, customer impact). Align the team before you chase ideas. What's the fastest way to gather the right facts without killing creativity? Great ideas come from great inputs, and Step Two is Fact Finding—collect data before opinions. Leaders should separate "facts" from "feelings" by digging into who/what/when/where/why/how. This is where many organisations discover their measurement systems are weak—or worse, wrong. In the US, you might lean on product analytics, A/B testing, and voice-of-customer tools. In Japan, you'll often combine frontline observation (genba thinking) with structured reporting—useful, but sometimes filtered by hierarchy. Either way, don't judge yet. Just get the evidence: customer complaints, churn reasons, sales cycle delays, defect rates, staff turnover, and time wasted in approvals. Do now (mini-summary): Collect 10 hard facts (numbers, patterns, examples) and 10 "customer voice" quotes. No solutions yet—just reality. How do you frame the real problem so you don't solve the wrong thing? The way you state the problem determines the quality of the ideas you'll get. Step Three is Problem (or Opportunity) Finding: clarify what's actually holding you back, where resources leak, and what success constraints exist. This is harder than it sounds. Ask five people the main problem and you'll get eight opinions—especially in matrixed multinationals or fast-moving startups. Use smart problem framing techniques: "How might we…?", "What's the bottleneck?", "If we fixed one thing this quarter, what would move the needle?" Compare Japan vs the US here: US teams may jump to action quickly; Japan teams may seek consensus early. Both can miss the root cause if the framing is sloppy. Do now (mini-summary): Rewrite your problem three ways: customer-impact, process-bottleneck, and cost-leakage. Pick the clearest, most actionable version. How do you run ideation so the loud people don't crush the good ideas? Step Four is Idea Finding, and the golden rule is: no judgement, chase volume, and do it in silence. This is where most leaders accidentally sabotage innovation—someone blurts an idea, the "bolshie" confident voices start critiquing, and the timid thinkers shut down. Silent idea generation (think brainwriting rather than brainstorming) helps deeper thinkers contribute and reduces status bias—critical in hierarchical cultures and in teams where junior staff defer to seniority. If you want better ideas, ask the people closest to the coal face: new hires, customer support, frontline sales, and the group that best matches your buyers' profile. Often they see problems the C-suite never touches. Do now (mini-summary): Run 10 minutes of silent brainwriting: each person writes 10 ideas. No talking. Then collect and cluster ideas by theme. How do leaders choose the best ideas without politics or "rank wins"? Step Five is Solution Finding—now you're allowed to judge, but you must judge fairly. The risk here is predictable: seniority dominates, juniors defer, and the "easy consensus" becomes a polite rubber stamp. Use a structured selection method: score ideas against agreed criteria (impact, effort, speed, risk, customer value). Borrow from frameworks like Stage-Gate, Lean Startup (testable hypotheses), and even RICE scoring (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort). Compare sectors: in B2B, feasibility and implementation risk often weigh more; in consumer markets, speed and customer delight can dominate. The point is to remove the "who said it" factor. Do now (mini-summary): Build a simple 4-criteria scorecard and rank the top 10 ideas. Make scoring anonymous if...
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    14 m
  • Time Management For Leaders

    Time Management For Leaders
    Dec 31 2025
    Leaders today are stuck in a constant three-way tug-of-war: time, quality, and cost. In the post-pandemic, hybrid-work era (2020–2025), the pressure doesn't ease—tech just lets us do more, faster, and the clock keeps yelling. This is a practical, leader-grade guide to getting control of your calendar without killing your standards or your people. Why does leadership time management feel harder now, even with better technology? It feels harder because technology increases speed and volume, so your workload expands to fill the space. Email, chat, dashboards, CRMs, and "quick calls" create the illusion of efficiency while quietly multiplying decisions and interruptions. In startups, that looks like context-switching between selling, hiring, and shipping. In large organisations—think Japan-based multinationals versus US tech firms—it becomes meetings, approvals, and stakeholder alignment. Either way, the result is the same: you're busy all day, but the important work stays parked. Answer card / Do now: Audit your week for "speed traps" (messages, meetings, micro-requests). Eliminate or cap the top two. What is the "Tyranny of the Urgent," and how does it wreck leader performance? The Tyranny of the Urgent is when urgent tasks bully important tasks off your schedule—until you're permanently firefighting. You end up reacting all day: chasing escalations, answering pings, and rescuing problems that should have been prevented. This is where burnout risk climbs and productivity drops—especially in people-heavy roles like sales leadership, operations, and client service. Leaders often say, "I don't have time to plan," but that's exactly how the urgent wins. The urgent will always show up; your job is to stop it running the company. Answer card / Do now: Name today's "urgent bully." Decide: delete, delegate, defer, or do—then move one important task back onto the calendar. How do I prioritise like a serious leader (not just make a chaotic to-do list)? Prioritising means ranking tasks by impact, not emotion—then doing them in that order. A scribbled list isn't a system. Leaders need a repeatable method for capture, ranking, and execution. Use simple impact questions: Will this protect revenue? Reduce risk? Improve customer outcomes? Build capability? In Japan, where consensus and quality are prized, leaders can over-invest in perfection; in the US, speed can dominate. The sweet spot is clarity: define "done," define the deadline, and define the owner. Answer card / Do now: Write your top 5 for tomorrow, rank them 1–5, and commit to finishing 1–2 before opening email/chat. What is the 4-box matrix and which quadrant should leaders live in? The best quadrant for leaders is "important but not urgent"—because that's where planning, thinking, and prevention happen. This is the Eisenhower/Covey style matrix in plain clothes: Important + Urgent: crises, deadlines, major issues (live here too long = stress + burnout)Important + Not urgent: strategy, coaching, planning, process improvement (your success engine)Not important + Urgent: interruptions, low-value requests (minimise and delegate)Not important + Not urgent: digital junk time (limit ruthlessly) Big firms (Toyota-style operational excellence) and fast movers (Rakuten-style pace) both win when leaders protect Quadrant 2 time. Answer card / Do now: Block 60–90 minutes this week for "Important/Not Urgent" work—and guard it like a client meeting. How do I stop low-priority work and social media from stealing my day? You stop it by making "wasted time" visible and socially awkward—then replacing it with intentional breaks.Leaders often underestimate the drag of "just checking" feeds, news, or random videos. It's not the minutes; it's the mental fragmentation. If you need a break, take a break that restores you: a 30-minute walk, a short workout, a proper lunch, or a reset chat with someone who energises you. In high-output cultures across Asia-Pacific and Europe, the smartest leaders build recovery into the week because it protects decision quality. Answer card / Do now: Put friction on distractions (log out, remove apps, notifications off). Replace with one "recovery break" you actually schedule. What tactical system works: daily task lists, time blocking, delegation, or batching? It's all four—stacked into one simple operating rhythm: list, block, protect, batch, delegate. Start the day with a written, prioritised list, then time-block the top items by making an appointment with yourself. Protect that time as aggressively as you would protect a client meeting. Next: delegate "not important but urgent" tasks where possible, and batch similar work to stay in flow—calls together, approvals together, email twice a day, admin in one chunk. This reduces ramp-up time and context switching, which is a silent killer in leadership roles. Answer card / Do now: Choose one batching rule for next week (e.g., email at 11:30 ...
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    14 m
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